Complete Game Notes [PDF]
 
First Pitch
USF (14-11, 2-4 WCC) continues its season-long eight-game road swing with a three-game WCC series at San Diego (16-6, 5-1 WCC) this weekend starting with Friday's series opener at 6 p.m. from Fowler Park. The Dons lost two of three at Gonzaga this past weekend before taking a midweek game, 9-6, over Nevada. Meanwhile, San Diego is coming off a series win on the road at Santa Clara last weekend and a 10-2 victory over UC Riverside on Tuesday.     
 
The Dons At a Glance...                                       
LAST TIME OUT

• Defeated Nevada, 9-6, on the road Tuesday afternoon
• Rallied back from a 3-0 deficit in the fourth inning before Nevada tied it in the seventh, but Matt Sinatro's two-run single in the eighth gave the Dons the deciding runs
• Sinatro went 2-for-5 and hit his first collegiate home run
• Michael Perri (2-for-4) also clubbed his first homer of the year and Aaron Ping hit a pinch-hit home run in the ninth
• Lefty Scott Parker earned the win with 2.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, while Joey Carney picked up his third save of the season

 
WHO'S HOT?
Allen Smoot has paced the offense over the last 10 games, hitting a team-best .424 with a home run, four RBI and seven runs scored over that span. Harrison Bruce is hitting .348 over that stretch, while Ross Puskarich leads the team with nine RBI over the last 10 contests. On the mound, right-hander Benji Post has gone 2-0 with a 1.26 ERA over his last seven appearances that includes one start. He has allowed just two earned runs while striking out nine over his last 14.2 innings of work.   
 
IN A PINCH
Aaron Ping's pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning against Nevada on Tuesday was the Dons' first since Bob Mott's ninth-inning blast against San Jose State on Apr. 30, 2013. Overall, the Dons are just 3-for-17 (.176) in pinch-hitting situations on the year. 
 
PUSKARICH KEEPS POUNDING
Ross Puskarich ranks fifth in the WCC in batting heading into the weekend with a .333 average, while his 32 hits on the year are the third-most in the conference. Puskarich has done much of his damage in clutch situations as one of the team's top performers with runners on base where he is hitting .362. His 17 RBI are tied for 10th in the WCC. He comes in riding a team-best eight game hitting streak.   
  
Scouting Report
 
About San Diego
At 16-6 overall, the Toreros carry the best record in the WCC into the weekend. They are ranked No. 23 in the D1Baseball.com top-25 and are receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Toreros claimed series victories over their first two WCC opponents by sweeping Portland at home and taking two of three against Santa Clara on the road. USD opened its season with a 3-2 home win over No. 6/7 Vanderbilt. The driving force for the Toreros this season has been their starting pitching, which has compiled a 9-0 record between left-handers Nick Sprengel (5-0) and Chris Murphy (2-0) and righty Paul Richan (2-0), each of whom ranks in the top-10 in the WCC in ERA. Sprengel, a sophomore, ranks third in the conference in strikeouts, leading a pitching staff that ranks sixth in the nation averaging 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings. Offensively, senior first baseman Roman Garcia leads the team with a .333 average, while pacing the conference with a .739 slugging percentage that includes 10 doubles and six home runs, both of which rank second in the WCC.          
 
Series Notes Against San Diego
San Diego holds a 38-28 advantage in the series during head coach Nino Giarratano's tenure (since 1999), but the Dons have held the upper hand lately, winning seven of the last eight contests, including series sweeps each of the past two seasons. Prior to that, the last team to earn a sweep came in 2010 when the Toreros won all three games in San Francisco. USF's current six-game winning streak over San Diego is the longest for either team under Giarratano.  
   
Last Time Out
An early deficit started a back-and-forth contest that forced the Dons to rally back to re-take the lead twice before holding off Nevada, 9-6, on Tuesday afternoon at Peccole Park. Matt Sinatro helped spark the offense by going 2-for-5 with three RBI and hitting his first collegiate home run, while Michael Perri went 2-for-4 and added his first long ball of the year and Aaron Ping added some insurance with a pinch-hit homer in the ninth. Nico Giarratano also collected a pair of hits and scored a run. Left-hander Scott Parker (2-1) picked up the win with 2.1 innings of shutout relief work where he allowed two hits while striking out two. USF fell into a 3-0 hole after the first three innings before stringing together a pair of three-run innings in the fourth and fifth frames, but not before Nevada evened it up with three runs of their own in the seventh. That's when Sinatro stepped up and broke the tie with the deciding two-run single with one out in the top of the eighth.

On Deck
The Dons will stay in San Diego following the weekend series for a single nonconference game at San Diego State on Monday at 2 p.m. Then USF will return home to host 2016 WCC Champion Saint Mary's in a three-game set beginning on Friday, Apr. 7 at 3 p.m. 
 
Individual game tickets for all USF home games at Benedetti Diamond are available online at USFDons.com or by calling (415) 422-2USF. General admission tickets are available for as low as $10, while reserved seats can be purchased for $15. All USFCA faculty, staff and students with a valid ID, and youth 12 and under enter free.